SCRIP-BITS

Psalm 24:1-2.   The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods (rivers).

Aye mih people, can you believe that once again it’s Sunday, and in a few hours it will be Monday and time to go back out to work! Ah Lord eh! The days are certainly passing quickly. As the Duchess likes to tell me when I complain about how time seems to be going by so quickly: ‘Stay there, yuh think time’s waiting on you nuh?’ And friends, it certainly isn’t, that means we have to make the best use of it that we can. 

And one of the best uses we can make of our time is to go to church and praise our wonderful God, worship and give thanks in fellowship with other believers. And on that point of going to church, I recently came across and interesting exercise in an article by Russ Ramsey titled ‘The Art of Reverence’ featured in May’s In Touch Magazine. 

In the article Ramsey states: ‘But don’t just go to church; prepare to go to church. Before you arrive ask the Lord to give you a sense of His power and greatness. Ask Him to give you ears to hear and eyes to see. Ask Him to give you a desire to feast upon His Word, to repent, to receive the assurance of His pardon, and to come to the Lord’s Table spiritually hungry. Remember, God is the audience of our worship.’ 

Now that’s how we should really approach going to church my breddren! So let’s start doing stuff like that nuh. Just as so many of us prepare ourselves physically with clean bodies and clean, good looking clothes, let’s prepare ourselves spiritually too nuh, that way we will derive much more satisfaction from visiting the Lord’s sanctuary and participating in all the activities that take place therein. 

Now let’s open the proceedings with a song of praise to soften our hearts and prepare it for the Lord’s Word. And today we’ll sing a traditional American spiritual song with which many of us old fogies are quite familiar. (smile) It’s titled ‘He’s got the whole world in His hands.’ And He certainly does! 

Apparently the song was first published in 1927, but became an international pop hit in 1957-58 in a recording by English singer Laurie London, and over the years has been recorded by many other singers and choirs. So let’s follow suit now and belt it out in heartfelt enthusiasm and sincerity nuh. 

‘He’s got the whole world in His hands He’s got the whole world in His hands He’s got the whole world in His hands He’s got the whole world in His hands He’s got the wind and the rain in his hands. (Sing three times) He’s got the whole world in his hands. He’s got the itty bitty baby in His hands (sing three times) He’s got the whole world in His hands He’s got a-you and me brother in His hands (sing three times) He’s got the whole world in his hands. 

He’s got you and me, sister, in his hands. (sing three times) He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got everybody here in his hands. (sing three times) He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got the whole world in His hands He’s got the whole world in His hands He’s got the whole world in His hands.’ 

Yes my people, the Lord God Almighty has the whole world and everything in it in His omnipotent hands. Unlike the false god Atlas who carried the world on his shoulders, like it was a heavy burden, our true and living God carries His awesome creation in the palms of His hands both to protect it and enable Him to see all that’s happening in one glance and make whatever alterations He needs to, so that His long term plan will eventually come to fruition in His time. (good sentence -smile) 

And Bruh David confidently proclaims that God owns and controls the earth in our Bit: ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods (rivers).’ And if anybody should know, it’s Bruh David, since he had such a close relationship with God, being known as His friend and a man after His own heart. 

And if you don’t believe Bruh David, peradventure you might believe the Lord Himself. Listen to the message He gave Moses on Mt. Sinai to give to the Israelites, when he went up there to get the Ten Commandments. 

‘Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar (special) treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine.’ ((Ex.19:4-5) 

And Moses reiterates that message in Deuteronomy. ‘Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord’s thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.’ (Deut.10:14) Yes friends, the universe and all therein belongs to Almighty God, our heavenly Father, Lord and King, which means we ought to pay much more respect to it as well as to Him, if we want to survive hellfire and damnation that will eventually befall the unbelievers. 

And we’ll end with some appropriate words of the psalmist Asaph on the topic. Speaking on God’s behalf, he declares: ‘If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof.’ (Ps.50:12) And if the world was ours, we wouldn’t have to tell anybody that we were hungry either, we’d just go and get whatever we wanted. Have a blessed day in fellowship my brethren! Much LOVE!

…the universe was created by God…and contrary to any other opinions…He still owns it…lock, stock and barrel…